Koala Hunt

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We had 5 days before our Whitsundays adventure so needed to start heading south making our way towards Airlie Beach. We took the Greyhound, driven by a very stereotypical Aussie telling us jokes rather than the health and safety information, and only to wear our seat belts if a policeman got on board which you wouldn't find at home! We landed at Mission Beach a few hours later and had the rest of the day to check it out.

We'd gotten a really laid back hostel that suited us down to the ground. It had a swimming pool on site and a big outdoor projector screen just being constructed. Although it was small everyone knows everyone after a few hours and it had a really good atmosphere. Jackaroo is worth a visit and will be a hard hostel to beat.

They had bikes on offer for free so we snapped them up and set off out towards the beach. There was only a small designated area in which you could swim due to the jelly fish so we went there. You'd think it would be busy but it wasn't at all, only a few people around making the most of a swimmable area. Mission Beach itself wasn't that busy either because of the low season.

From where we were on the beach we could see all the skydivers opening their parachutes to cruise back down to ground. It was tempting to do one there and fall from above the barrier reef but it'll have to wait until New Zealand and Laura needs time to come round to the idea! This was probably one of our laziest days to date, which are a rarity but there really wasn't much else that we could do in the area other than pay huge amounts to do the skydive and therefore we decided to move on.

So another 6 hours down the coast was Magnetic Island, just a 20 minute ferry ride away from Townsville. Since arriving in Australia we have both gone a bit crazy for the wildlife and seeing as Magnetic Island has the highest density of Koalas in Australia there was only one thing we were going to do, find a koala. We'd planned to go on a walk, get up close and personal with a wild koala and then walk further to one of the beaches. This almost happened however the ratio of koala hunt:beach time was heavily imbalanced, in favour of the koalas. We took a 7 km path through a eucalyptus forest which we thought would give us our best chances, 4 hours later and neck ache worst than watching lord of the rings from the front row of the cinema, we still had no sign of a koala. We landed at the beach, made up some lunch and got chatting to some people who'd seen one, after 5 minutes or so of a different walk in an area close by! No time for the beach now for we had a koala to catch! Off we went on a scenic fort walk that should take no longer than an hour or so. 2 hours later and we'd not found one of these infamous critters. Just as we were about to give up the chase on them, 5 minutes from the bus stop, there he was in all his deceiving cuteness, at the top of a tree looking down on us. We pulled off some moves that Steve would be proud of, shot up a rock face and straight up the tree to a less than safe distance from a koala, but we got a good photo so it was worth it!!

We had walked about 20km in total that day, in the middle of the sweltering heat to find a koala which was much harder than it first looked. We didn't do much for the remainder of the day, cooked a well earned tea and had a few beers and had nightmares of koalas that night.

Our bus was due to leave the next day at 2pm, which meant leaving the island at 12 to get there on time. This left us with only a few hours so we went to the pool and stayed at the pool, no more walking today! We took our bus and ferry combo back to the bus station and had a 2 hour wait then before our bus to Airlie Beach.

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Comments

[anne prats]

sounds like you are having lots of fun & getting plenty excercise too!! you will certainly be very fit.hope you both had a lovely christmas as we all did here apart from missing you desperately!!!!this morning is beautiful blue sky at the moment but probably not for long!!we have had so much rain.wish we were with you enjoying the sun.the koala hunt must have been very frustrating but you got there in the end.wonderful!! We will make a toast to you both on new years eve. Here\'s to a very happy,healthy & adventurous 2013. With our love to you always Grandma & Grandpa xxxxxx